Early Life
Cooper was born in Belgium to parents who were killed at Auschwitz concentration camp shortly after her birth. After spending years in various orphanages in Belgium, she was adopted by the Cooper family at age 6 and came to the United States. At age 8, she became an American citizen.
She began her freelance writing career in 1968, after completing a master's degree in psychology. As a result of her earlier study of comparative religion at Harvard University for a summer, she became interested in religious cults and began studying Scientology/Dianetics in 1968 in order to write about it.
Read more about this topic: Paulette Cooper
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